Selective voice transmission during telephone calls

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the disclosure relate to selective voice transmission and include receiving an identification of one or more authorized speakers for a telephone call and retrieving a voice sample for each of the one or more authorized speakers. Embodiments also include receiving one or more audio signals for the telephone call and filtering the one or more audio signals by removing a portion of the one or more audio signals that do not contain a voice of at least one of the one or more authorized speakers in the one or more audio signals.

DOMESTIC PRIORITY

This application is a continuation application of the legally relatedU.S. Ser. No. 14/055,945 filed Oct. 17, 2013, the contents of which areincorporated by reference herein in their entirety.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates to voice transmission, and morespecifically, to selective voice transmission during telephone calls.

It is often difficult to achieve clear voice transmission when speakingover a telephone in a busy or noisy place, such as a crowded restaurant,a noisy street, a train station, an office cubicle, or the like. In manycases, background noises and neighboring conversations are picked up bya telephone microphone and transmitted on a telephone call. Thesebackground noises are undesirable and make it difficult for otherindividuals on a telephone call to clearly hear the voice of the personspeaking on the call.

A variety of different technologies have been developed to attempt tofilter out background noise during telephone calls. For example, currenttechnologies include voice suppression, noise reduction and noisecancellation. In general, these technologies use a combination ofalgorithms and hardware, such as multiple microphones, to attempt tofilter out the unwanted background noise. However, the currentlyavailable methods are not able to distinguish between neighboringconversations and the voice of a person using the phone.

SUMMARY

According to one embodiment, a method for selective voice transmissionincludes receiving an identification of one or more authorized speakersfor a telephone call and retrieving a voice sample for each of the oneor more authorized speakers. The method also includes receiving one ormore audio signals for the telephone call and filtering, by a processor,the one or more audio signals by removing a portion of the one or moreaudio signals that do not contain a voice of at least one of the one ormore authorized speakers in the one or more audio signals.

According to another embodiment, a computer program product forselective voice transmission, the computer program product including atangible storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storinginstructions for execution by the processing circuit for performing amethod that includes receiving an identification of one or moreauthorized speakers for a telephone call and retrieving a voice samplefor each of the one or more authorized speakers. The method alsoincludes receiving one or more audio signals for the telephone call andfiltering, by a processor, the one or more audio signals by removing aportion of the one or more audio signals that do not contain a voice ofat least one of the one or more authorized speakers in the one or moreaudio signals.

Additional features and advantages are realized through the techniquesof the present invention. Other embodiments and aspects of the inventionare described in detail herein and are considered a part of the claimedinvention. For a better understanding of the invention with theadvantages and the features, refer to the description and to thedrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The subject matter which is regarded as the invention is particularlypointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion ofthe specification. The forgoing and other features, and advantages ofthe invention are apparent from the following detailed description takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating one example of a processingsystem for practice of the teachings herein;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a system for selective voicetransmission in accordance with an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for setting up aconference call having selective voice transmission in accordance withan exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for administrating aconference call having selective voice transmission in accordance withan exemplary embodiment; and

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a telephone configured forselective voice transmission in accordance with an exemplary embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In accordance with exemplary embodiments of the disclosure, methods,systems and computer program products for selective voice transmissionare provided. In exemplary embodiments, a selective voice transmissionsystem is configured to collect and store a voice sample of anauthorized speaker and to use a voice recognition system to filter outsounds that do not correspond to the stored voice sample of theauthorized speaker. In exemplary embodiments, the selective voicetransmission system may be configured for use with a teleconferencesystem. In other embodiments, the selective voice transmission may beconfigured for use on any telephone, such as a smartphone, for usedduring normal two-party telephone calls.

Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown an embodiment of a processing system100 for implementing the teachings herein. In this embodiment, thesystem 100 has one or more central processing units (processors) 101 a,101 b, 101 c, etc. (collectively or generically referred to asprocessor(s) 101). In one embodiment, each processor 101 may include areduced instruction set computer (RISC) microprocessor. Processors 101are coupled to system memory 114 and various other components via asystem bus 113. Read only memory (ROM) 102 is coupled to the system bus113 and may include a basic input/output system (BIOS), which controlscertain basic functions of system 100.

FIG. 1 further depicts an input/output (I/O) adapter 107 and a networkadapter 106 coupled to the system bus 113. I/O adapter 107 may be asmall computer system interface (SCSI) adapter that communicates with ahard disk 103 and/or tape storage drive 105 or any other similarcomponent. I/O adapter 107, hard disk 103, and tape storage device 105are collectively referred to herein as mass storage 104. Software 120for execution on the processing system 100 may be stored in mass storage104. A network adapter 106 interconnects bus 113 with an outside network116 enabling data processing system 100 to communicate with other suchsystems. A screen (e.g., a display monitor) 115 is connected to systembus 113 by display adaptor 112, which may include a graphics adapter toimprove the performance of graphics intensive applications and a videocontroller. In one embodiment, adapters 107, 106, and 112 may beconnected to one or more I/O busses that are connected to system bus 113via an intermediate bus bridge (not shown). Suitable I/O buses forconnecting peripheral devices such as hard disk controllers, networkadapters, and graphics adapters typically include common protocols, suchas the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI). Additional input/outputdevices are shown as connected to system bus 113 via user interfaceadapter 108 and display adapter 112. A keyboard 109, mouse 110, andspeaker 111 all interconnected to bus 113 via user interface adapter108, which may include, for example, a Super I/O chip integratingmultiple device adapters into a single integrated circuit.

Thus, as configured in FIG. 1, the system 100 includes processingcapability in the form of processors 101, storage capability includingsystem memory 114 and mass storage 104, input means such as keyboard 109and mouse 110, and output capability including speaker 111 and display115. In one embodiment, a portion of system memory 114 and mass storage104 collectively store an operating system such as the AIX® operatingsystem from IBM Corporation to coordinate the functions of the variouscomponents shown in FIG. 1.

Referring now to FIG. 2, a block diagram of a system 200 for selectivevoice transmission is shown. As illustrated the system 200 includes avoice management system 210 configured to communicate with a calendartool 202 and a telephone system 204. In exemplary embodiments, the voicemanagement system 210 is configured to receive input from the calendartool 202 for setting up a conference call on the telephone system 204.In addition, the voice management system 210 is configured to interfacewith telephone system 204 during the conference call. In exemplaryembodiments, the telephone system 204 may include both land lines andcellular telephone systems.

In exemplary embodiments, the calendar tool 202 is configured to allow auser to create a meeting, or conference call. The calendar tool 202allows a user to invite participants to join a conference call and tospecify which participants of the conference call are authorized tospeak during the conference call. In exemplary embodiments, the calendartool 202 may also be configured to allow a meeting creator to setspecific time periods that each participant is permitted to speak duringthe conference call.

In exemplary embodiments, the voice management system 210 includes avoice collection module 212, a meeting profiles and rules module 214, avoice recognition module 216 and a voice filtering module 218. Inexemplary embodiments, the voice collection module 212 is configured tocollect voice samples of the participants of a call that are authorizedto speak during the conference call. In one embodiment, once theauthorized speakers are identified for a conference call, the voicecollection module 212 accesses a voice repository 220 to retrieve voicesamples for the authorized speakers. If the voice repository 220 doesnot include a voice sample for each of the authorized speakers, thevoice collection module 212 will request voice samples from theauthorized speakers prior to or at the beginning of the conference call.In exemplary embodiments, the voice repository 220 is a database thatstores voice samples.

In exemplary embodiments, the meeting profiles and rules module 214 isconfigured to store information received from the calendar tool 202 foreach conference call. The stored information includes informationregarding the meeting participants and authorized speakers. In exemplaryembodiments, the meeting profiles and rules module 214 may also storeadditional information regarding each of the participants of theconference call, such as their contact information.

In exemplary embodiments, the voice recognition module 216 is configuredto analyze the voices, and other noises, present on the conference call.The module 216 first checks if a voice sample for each of the authorizedspeakers exists in the voice repository or not. If it does, the module216 compares the incoming voice with the sample to see if it is an exactvoice match or the incoming voice contains the voice of the authorizeduser. If either case is true, the incoming voice is validated with theauthorized users list. Voice filtering module 218 filters out anynon-matching voice or noise from the background. Sound and voicefiltration systems of this type are described in commonly owned U.S.patent application Ser. No. 12/979,531, filed Dec. 28, 2010, andpublished Jun. 28, 2012 as U.S. Patent Application Publication2012/0166188; the specifications of such application and publication areincorporated herein by reference. In the case when multiple voices arecoming through a single phone line, the voice recognition module 216checks the amplitude (loudness), frequency (pitch) and rate of speakingof multiple voices to determine whether an authorized user's voice ispart of the sound. For example, an authorized speaker may be in the sameconference room with other participants. The authorized speaker usuallyis given a microphone or sits close to a microphone. Therefore, theauthorized speaker's voice should be the loudest in the room compared toother participants who may have chats on the side. The voice recognitionmodule 216 can also identify the authorized speaker by the rate ofspeaking such as the number of words per minute or number of words perbreath. In addition, the fundamental frequency range for human speech(75-150 Hz for men and 150-300 Hz for women) can be analyzed todifferentiate a man's or a woman's voice, or background noise. Once anauthorized speaker's voice is identified among other non-authorizedspeakers' voices, the voice filtering module 218 isolates the voice ofthe authorized speaker and filters out non-matching voice or noise. Thenit returns only the authorized speaker's voice. In one embodiment,during a conference call, the telephone system 204 may send informationregarding who has called in to the conference call to the voicerecognition module 216. If the voice samples of the authorized speakersare not available when the conference call begins, the voice collectionmodule 212 creates a voice sample of an authorized speaker when he orshe calls in to the meeting and announces himself/herself.

In one embodiment, the voice management system 210 will provide feedbackto the telephone system 204 on which participant's phone(s) to mutebased on the meeting profiles and rules 214. For example, the voicemanagement system 210 may determine that the participants that called infrom a particular phone line may not be authorized to speak during aportion of a conference call and may instruct the telephone system 204to mute that phone line during that portion of the conference call.

In another embodiment, the telephone system 202 may transmit all of thevoices, and other sounds, present on each participant's phone to thevoice recognition module 216. The voice recognition module 216 analysesthe audio signals in real time and determines if the audio signalsinclude the voice of an authorized speaker. The voice filtering module218 then receives input from the voice recognition module 216 andresponsively controls what voice(s) will be heard on the conference callby filtering out all sounds except the voice of the authorizedspeaker(s).

In exemplary embodiments, the voice transmission system is configured toselect voices of the authorized speakers to be transmitted in ateleconference call. For example, if an authorized speaker calls into aconference call from a train station which is very noisy. Only the voiceof the authorized speaker is heard as his voice has been identified asthe authorized speaker while background noises at the train station,such as crying babies, train announcements, etc. would not betransmitted over the conference call.

In exemplary embodiments, when a conference call is scheduled, theconference chair sets the meeting profile and rules. The meeting profileand rules identify the authorized speakers and optionally an authorizedtime period for each authorized speaker. In addition, the meetingprofile and rules may specify if other participants are permitted and ifso for how long the other participants can speak per request. Inexemplary embodiments, such other participants, referred to as exceptionspeakers, have option to request an exception time to speak from themeeting chair during the conference call. Once the exception request isgranted, an exception speaker's voice can be heard for the duration thatis defined in the predefined rule.

Referring now to FIG. 3, a flow chart illustrating a method 300 forsetting up a conference call having selective voice transmission inaccordance with an exemplary embodiment is shown. As shown at block 302,the method 300 includes creating a conference call. In exemplaryembodiments, the conference call is created by a meeting organizer usingan existing calendar tool. Next, as shown at block 304, the method 300includes creating rules for the conference call including one or moreauthorized speakers. As shown at block 306, the method 300 also includescollecting voice samples from the one or more authorized speakers. Next,as shown at block 308, the method 300 also includes storing the voicesamples from the one or more authorized speakers in a voice repository.

Referring now to FIG. 4, a flow chart illustrating a method 400 foradministrating a conference call having selective voice transmission inaccordance with an exemplary embodiment is shown. As shown at block 402,the method 400 includes connecting a plurality of participants to aconference call. Next, as shown at block 402, the method 400 includesretrieving the rules for the conference call including one or moreauthorized speakers. As shown at block 406, the method 400 also includesretrieving a voice sample for each of the one or more authorizedspeakers from a voice repository. Next, as shown at block 408, themethod 400 includes detecting a sound present on the conference call. Asshown at decision block 410, the method 400 includes determining if thedetected sound is a voice of one of the one or more authorized speakers.If the detected sound is a voice of one of the one or more authorizedspeakers, the method proceeds to block 414 and transmits the detectedsound on the conference call. Otherwise, the method 400 proceeds toblock 412 and filters out the detected sound.

In one example of the selective voice transmission system, Jennyschedules a conference call using a calendar tool for Dec. 1, 2013 from1:00 pm to 2:00 pm. Jenny adds Jean, Peter, and 40 other people to theconference call. Jenny marks Jean and Peter as authorized speakers from1:00 to 1:45 pm. The calendar tool notifies the voice management tool tocollect Jean's and Peter's voice samples prior to the conference call.Assuming that the voice management tool finds Peter's voice sample inthe voice repository but not Jean's voice sample, the voice managementtool sends an email to Jean to collect her voice sample. Jean thenrecords her voice sample as instructed by the voice management tool andit is stored in the voice repository.

At the time of the conference call, each participant calls into themeeting. Optionally, each person announces themselves when joining theconference call. Assume that Jean is calling from an airport, which isvery noisy, and that Peter is calling in from home. The voice managementtool only allows the voice of Jean, Peter and the meeting chair to beheard for the first 45 minutes. When Jean speaks, the voice recognitiononly picks up her voice and does not allow any other voices to be heardbecause she is identified as the authorized speaker. Even though thereare very loud background announcements at the airport, those voices donot match her voice sample in the voice repository, and so they are notbeing transmitted over the conference call line. Since Jenny has set upthe meeting to have Jean and Peter present for the first 45 minutes,other participants' voices can only be heard in the last 15 minutes ofthe meeting.

In exemplary embodiments, if the meeting chair does not specify who theauthorized speakers are, the voice management system 210 may beconfigured to assume that everyone who calls into the meeting can havetheir voices transmitted over the conference call line. In this case,the voice collection component 212 can use the first few seconds torecord each participant's voice sample when they call into the meetingand announce their presence at the beginning of the call. These voicesamples will then be stored and these will be the voices that can betransmitted, all other voices that do not match will not be heard.

Referring now to FIG. 5, a block diagram of a telephone 500 configuredfor selective voice transmission in accordance with an exemplaryembodiment is shown. As illustrated, the telephone 500 includes amicrophone 502, a voice repository 504, a communications device 506 anda voice management system 510. In exemplary embodiments, the telephone500 may be a cellular phone and the communications device 506 may be asuitable cellular radio.

In exemplary embodiments, the owner or user of the telephone 500 mayconfigure the telephone 500 to enable selective voice transmission viathe voice management system 510. The voice management system 510includes a voice collection module 512, a profiles and rules module 514,a voice recognition module 516 and a voice filtering module 518. Thevoice collection module 512 is configured to collect and store a voicesample from each user of the telephone 500. The profiles and rulesmodule 514 is configured to allow a user to select times and places inwhich the user wants to utilize the voice management system 510 and toselect one or more configuration options for the use of the voicemanagement system 510. The voice recognition module 516 is configured tocompare the voices and noises picked up from the microphone 502 and toidentify the presence of any voices that match voices stored in thevoice repository 504. The voice filtering module 518 is configured tofilter out all noises except the voices identified by the voicerecognition module 516.

In exemplary embodiments, one or more users of a telephone 500 may usethe voice management system 510 to record and store a sample of theirvoice in the voice repository 504. When a user of the telephone 500wants to make a call the user may need to either enable or disable thevoice management system 510. When the voice management system 510 isenabled, the voice management system 510 receives the output of themicrophone 502 and filters out all of the noise and voices picked up bythe microphone 502 other than the voice of the user. The voicemanagement system 510 then transmits the filtered voice signal to thecommunications device 506.

In exemplary embodiments, the voice management system is configured tosupport exception handling. In one embodiment, only voices of authorizedspeakers are selected to be transmitted. However, if other participantsrequest to have their voice being heard, the exception handling willgrant the other participants the right to have their voice transmittedas well (e.g., each participant can be granted maximum of two minutestalk time etc)

In one embodiment, if the meeting organizer does not specify who the keyspeakers are, the voice management system is configured to treat everymeeting participant who calls into the meeting as an authorized speaker.For example, the voice collection component can use the first fewseconds to record a voice sample from each participant when he or shecalls into the meeting at the beginning. These voice samples can then beused to filter out the voices that can be transmitted. All other voicesthat don't match the recorded voice samples will not be heard.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the presentinvention may be embodied as a system, method or computer programproduct. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the formof an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment(including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or anembodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may allgenerally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.”Furthermore, aspects of the present invention may take the form of acomputer program product embodied in one or more computer readablemedium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon.

Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may beutilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signalmedium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readablestorage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic,magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system,apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. Morespecific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readablestorage medium would include the following: an electrical connectionhaving one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, arandom access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber,a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storagedevice, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. In the context of this document, a computer readable storagemedium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a programfor use by or in connection with an instruction execution system,apparatus, or device.

A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signalwith computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, inbaseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may takeany of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to,electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. Acomputer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium thatis not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate,propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmittedusing any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless,wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination ofthe foregoing.

Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of thepresent invention may be written in any combination of one or moreprogramming languages, including an object oriented programming languagesuch as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional proceduralprogramming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similarprogramming languages. The program code may execute entirely on theuser's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alonesoftware package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remotecomputer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latterscenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computerthrough any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or awide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an externalcomputer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet ServiceProvider).

Aspects of the present invention are described below with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer program instructions. These computer program instructions maybe provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, specialpurpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus toproduce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via theprocessor of the computer or other programmable data processingapparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified inthe flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computerreadable medium that can direct a computer, other programmable dataprocessing apparatus, or other devices to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readablemedium produce an article of manufacture including instructions whichimplement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer,other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to causea series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, otherprogrammable apparatus or other devices to produce a computerimplemented process such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer or other programmable apparatus provide processes forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof code, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be notedthat, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in theblock may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, twoblocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantiallyconcurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverseorder, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be notedthat each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, andcombinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchartillustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-basedsystems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations ofspecial purpose hardware and computer instructions.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. Asused herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify thepresence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements,and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of onemore other features, integers, steps, operations, element components,and/or groups thereof.

The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of allmeans or step plus function elements in the claims below are intended toinclude any structure, material, or act for performing the function incombination with other claimed elements as specifically claimed. Thedescription of the present invention has been presented for purposes ofillustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive orlimited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications andvariations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the artwithout departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Theembodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain theprinciples of the invention and the practical application, and to enableothers of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention forvarious embodiments with various modifications as are suited to theparticular use contemplated.

The flow diagrams depicted herein are just one example. There may bemany variations to this diagram or the steps (or operations) describedtherein without departing from the spirit of the invention. Forinstance, the steps may be performed in a differing order or steps maybe added, deleted or modified. All of these variations are considered apart of the claimed invention.

While the preferred embodiment to the invention had been described, itwill be understood that those skilled in the art, both now and in thefuture, may make various improvements and enhancements which fall withinthe scope of the claims which follow. These claims should be construedto maintain the proper protection for the invention first described.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for selective voice transmission, comprising: receiving, by a processor, an identification of one or more authorized speakers for a telephone call; retrieving, by the processor, a voice sample for each of the one or more authorized speakers; receiving, by the processor, one or more audio signals for the telephone call; and filtering, by the processor, the one or more audio signals by removing a portion of the one or more audio signals that does not contain a voice of at least one of the one or more authorized speakers in the one or more audio signals.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving a voice sample for each of the one or more authorized speakers further comprises retrieving the voice sample from a voice repository.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving a voice sample for each of the one or more authorized speakers further comprises collecting the voice sample from the one or more authorized speakers.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein collecting the voice sample from the one or more authorized speakers occurs during a portion of the telephone call.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification of one or more authorized speakers includes an identity of each of the one or more authorized speakers and an authorized time period for each of the one or more authorized speakers.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the filtering further comprises removing a portion of the one or more audio signals that contains the voice of an authorized speaker in the one or more audio signals if a current time is not within the authorized time period corresponding to the authorized speaker.
 7. A computer program product for selective voice transmission, the computer program product comprising: a tangible storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for execution by the processing circuit for performing a method comprising: receiving an identification of one or more authorized speakers for a telephone call; retrieving a voice sample for each of the one or more authorized speakers; receiving one or more audio signals for the telephone call; and filtering the one or more audio signals by removing a portion of the one or more audio signals that do not contain a voice of at least one of the one or more authorized speakers in the one or more audio signals.
 8. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein retrieving a voice sample for each of the one or more authorized speakers further comprises retrieving the voice sample from a voice repository.
 9. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein retrieving a voice sample for each of the one or more authorized speakers further comprises collecting the voice sample from the one or more authorized speakers.
 10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein collecting the voice sample from the one or more authorized speakers occurs during a portion of the telephone call.
 11. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the identification of one or more authorized speakers includes an identity of each of the one or more authorized speakers and an authorized time period for each of the one or more authorized speakers.
 12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the filtering further comprises removing the portion of the one or more audio signals that contains the voice of one of the authorized speaker in the one or more audio signals if a current time is not within the authorized time period corresponding to the authorized speaker. 